The International Association of Amateur Heralds

Countries with an establshed nobility?

Re: Countries with an establshed nobility?

Posted: 29 Jul 2015, 09:48

by Martin Goldstraw

Chris Green wrote:

I am not quite clear what you are getting at here Ryan. In the UK one may change one's name by deed poll (without resort to lawyers - it's relatively straightforward, I've done it). So it is perfectly possible for a John Smith to become, say, Count Cagliostro, though whether that would be accepted for the purposes of a British passport is entirely up to the Passport Office (and if they said OK, the Count would be as a forename not a title.

It is the policy of the passport office, where a forename may be mistaken for a title, to place a note in the "observations" page in the passport.

In cases where an applicant has adopted a description of a title of nobility as a forename the observation to be entered is:• THE REFERENCE TO .............................................. IS TO THE HOLDER'S NAME AND NOT TO THE HOLDER'S TITLE.(e.g. LORD; SIR; BARON; ETC.)This observation should automatically be placed in the passport of any such applicant and there is no need to contact them // snip//

I'm not sure whether the UK passport office would place an observation on someone with Count as a forename as Count is not a title in the UK peerage.

Re: Countries with an establshed nobility?

Well, as I mentioned there have been moves in that direction in South Africa.However since most of the chiefs and kings in this country are not armigerous (I know that the Zulu king has registered arms in Pretoria), this has extremely limited bearing on armorial usage.There is also no clear gradation of rank. Various chiefs have obtained recognition (under the old legislation) as paramount chiefs, and now style themselves kings. But it seems as if others, also, are arrogating themselves to that status.Those chiefs who are not kings cannot clearly be divided into anything equivalent to dukes, marquesses, earls (counts), viscounts and barons.Traditional leaders who are neither kings nor chiefs are generally termed headmen, but this would appear to be a non-noble position of leadership.Regards,Mike

Re: Countries with an establshed nobility?

Well, as I mentioned there have been moves in that direction in South Africa.However since most of the chiefs and kings in this country are not armigerous (I know that the Zulu king has registered arms in Pretoria), this has extremely limited bearing on armorial usage.There is also no clear gradation of rank. Various chiefs have obtained recognition (under the old legislation) as paramount chiefs, and now style themselves kings. But it seems as if others, also, are arrogating themselves to that status.Those chiefs who are not kings cannot clearly be divided into anything equivalent to dukes, marquesses, earls (counts), viscounts and barons.Traditional leaders who are neither kings nor chiefs are generally termed headmen, but this would appear to be a non-noble position of leadership.Regards,Mike

Nobility is not limited to titled persons. And society with a hereditary upper class has nobility. Actually, the UK is unique in that the untitled noblemen (gentry) didn't enjoy extensive privileges and immunities and was not legally defined.

Re: Countries with an establshed nobility?

Posted: 19 Aug 2015, 21:32

by Mike_Oettle

Ryan Shuflin wrote: “Nobility is not limited to titled persons.”

That also is well known to me. But in South Africa there is no untitled nobility.People entitled to be called chiefs are styled that way (in Xhosa and Zulu, the term is khosi, and in Sesotho and Setswana, kgosi).This term is used of any and all persons of rank from village chiefs to kings of subnational groups.Each ethnic group has its own way of determining who may be a chief, but among the amaXhosa of the Eastern Cape all chiefs (with rare exceptions) are members of the royal clan, the amaTshawe.I know of only two exceptions.First there was the 19th-century prophet Makhanda, who was known in his own time as Nxele (meaning left-handed), Links (among the Dutch) or Lynx (among the British). His name is nowadays commonly misspelt as Makana.I have also heard of one other exception in the 21st century, but I cannot call his name to mind.Regards,Mike